Ian Woodhead

Ian Woodhead

Chief Scientist

NZCE, BSc, PhD

Office +64 3 325 3700

Direct +64 3 325 3721

Email ian.woodhead@lincolnagritech.co.nz

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Professor Ian Woodhead is Lincoln Agritech’s Chief Scientist and Group Manager of the Lincoln Technology Group. With almost 40 years’ experience in sensor development, his main research interests are measuring the broadband dielectric properties of composite materials including water content, physical measurements using microwave and mm waves, and high speed electronics.

Professor Woodhead has created a number of globally-marketed sensors, including devices to evaluate the performance of electric fences and the Aquaflex electronic soil moisture sensor, sold by Streat Instruments, that has paved the way for more efficient irrigation systems and allowed farmers to use water more sustainably.

He is a member of IEEE and the Antennas and Propagation, portfolio leader and management team member for the National Science Challenge - Science for Technological Innovation, Chair of New Zealand Electronics Institute Canterbury, board member of Lincoln University’s Centre for Soil and Environmental Quality, and editorial board member of Biosystems Engineering (Elsevier). Woodhead has been an advisor to and is a regular assessor for MBIE Science, assessor for the French National Research Agency, and technical/organising committee member and session chair of ISEMA, IEEE I&M, ICST and TDR international conferences.

Professor Woodhead was awarded the Royal Society Te Aparangi’s Scott Medal in 2017; the engineering science and technology award was presented in recognition of the wide range of sensors he has developed for the agricultural and environmental sectors.

He has particular interests in:

  • Sensors, especially using electromagnetic fields
  • Electromagnetic modelling
  • Time domain reflectometry
  • High speed electronics

Recent Projects

Latest Publications View All

Non-Invasive Groundwater Velocity Measurements Using a Novel Electromagnetic Flowmeter

IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurements

Mitchell B, Zhou Y, Hayes M, Heffernan B, Platt I, Bailey J, Hunze A, Gao K, Long N, Woodhead I. Jan, 2022

https://doi.org/10.1109/TIM.2022.3147322

Planar Lens Based on Dielectric Resonators and Printed Continuous Metal Strips

2020 Asia Pacific Microwave Conference (APMC2020)

K. W. Eccleston, Y. Zhou, I. G. Platt, I. M. Woodhead and A. E.-C. Tan Dec, 2020

Snow Depth Measurements from an Octo-copter Mounted Radar

IEE - International Microwave Symposium

Adrian Tan, Josh McCulloch, Wolfgang Rack, Ian Platt, Ian Woodhead Nov, 2020

Evaluation of Backpropagation Reconstruction Algorithm for 3D Microwave Imaging of Body Part Anomalie

 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and North American Radio Science Meeting

Claire Migliaccio, Christian Pichot, Ian Platt, Adrian Tan, Ian Woodhead Jul, 2020

Radar Measurements of Snow Depth Over Sea Ice on an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing

Tan, A. E. C., McCulloch, J., Wolfgang, R., Platt, I., Woodhead, I. Jul, 2020

Matrix-Based Constitutive Parameter and Generalised Surface Effect Retrieval

4th Australian Microwave Symposium (AMS2020), 2p, Sydney, Australia

Eccleston, K.W., Platt, I., Woodhead, I., Tan, A. E. C. Feb, 2020

TRL Assisted Low-loss Negative-Refractive Index Metamaterial Characterization in the Presence of Surface Effects

2019 IEEE International Microwave and RF Conference (IMaRC2019), Mumbai, India

Eccleston, K.W., Platt, I. G., Woodhead, I., Tan, A. E. C.  Dec, 2019

Cavity Backed Antenna for Microwave Estimation of Grape Bunches in Vineyard

APMC 2019, Singapore

Tan, A., Riding, P., Eccleston, K., Platt, I., Werner, A., Woodhead, I. Dec, 2019

Observations from Radar Scans of Grape Vines Conducted over a Growing Season

2019 IEEE Conference on Antenna Measurements and Applications, Bali, Indonesia

Eccleston, K. W., Platt, I. G., Jafari, A., Werner, A., Bateman, C., Woodhead, I. M., Fourie, J., Hsiao, J., & Carey, P. Oct, 2019

Effect of Shoot Scattering on a Grape-Yield Radar

Conference on Antenna Measurements & Applications (CAMA 2018), Vasteras, Sweden

Platt, I., Eccleston, K. W., Tan A. E. C., Woodhead, I. Sep, 2018

Wave Interaction with Grape Bunches on Vines

7th IEEE Asia-Pacific Conference on Antennas and Propagation (APCAP2018), Auckland, New Zealand

Eccleston, K.W., Platt, I. G., Woodhead, I., Tan, A. E. C.  Aug, 2018

Non-Diffracting Beams for Moisture Measurement

12th ISEMA conference, Lublin, Poland

Woodhead, I., Platt, I., Tan, A. E. C., Eccleston, K. W. Jun, 2018

Microwave Measurements of Snow over Sea-Ice in Antarctica

12th ISEMA conference, Lublin, Poland

Tan, A. E. C., Eccleston, K. W., Platt, I., Woodhead, I., Rack, W., McCulloch, J. Jun, 2018

First application of a newly developed drone radar for snow on sea ice

European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2018, Vienna, Austria

Rack, W., Tan, A. E. C., McCulloch, J., Platt, I., Eccleston, K., Woodhead, I. Apr, 2018

The Design of a UAV Mounted Snow Depth Radar - Results of Measurements on Antarctic Sea Ice

2017 IEEE Conference on Antenna Measurements and Applications (CAMA), Ibaraki, Japan

Tan, A. E. C., Riding, P. A., Eccleston, K. W., Platt, I., Woodhead, I. Dec, 2017

Microwave Modeling and Experiments for Non-Destructive Control Improved Quality of fruit

2017 IEEE Conference on Antenna Measurements and Applications (CAMA), Ibaraki, Japan

Jawad, H., Lanteri, J., Migliaccio, C., Pichot, C., Platt, I., Tan, A. E. C., Eccleston, K. W., Woodhead, I. Dec, 2017

Fully-Printed S-band SRR/Wire NRI Lens with Reduced Wire Density

6th Asia Pacific Conference on Antennas and Propagation (APCAP2017), Xi'an, China

Eccleston, K. W., Platt, I. G., Tan, A. E.-C., Woodhead, I. M. Oct, 2017

On-irrigator pasture soil moisture sensor

Measurement Science and Technology, Vol. 28(2)

Tan, A. E. C., Richards,S., Platt, I., Woodhead, I. Jan, 2017

A Monte Carlo Approach to Determining Bessel Beam Source Parameters

ICST 2016 conference, Nanjing, China

Woodhead, I., Platt, I., Tan, A. E. C, and Eccleston, K. W. Nov, 2016

AbstractAbstract—In this paper we derive a robust Markov Chain Monte  Carlo formulation to determine the suitable driver amplitudes for a microwave antenna to generate a Bessel beam. We show that the resulting solutions pr... Read More

Polarization control of aperture coupled circular patch antennas

IEEE Conference on Antennas Measurements and Applications, Syracruse, USA

Tan, A. E., Riding, P. A., Eccleston, K. W., Platt, I. G., Woodhead, I. M. Oct, 2016

AbstractIn this paper, we propose an aperture coupled circular patch antenna that allows design flexibility of its polarization. The antenna comprises of two dielectric layers and three metal layers. The top layer contains a ... Read More

Imaging and Parameterizing Moisture in Road Sub Course Using Time Domain Reflectometry

IEEE Sensors Journal, Vol. 16(12), 4760-66

Platt, I., Woodhead, I., Harrington, P., Tan, A. E. C. Jun, 2016

AbstractThis paper presents the experimental results of using a non-invasive time domain reflectometry (TDR) sensor to image and parameterize the moisture content of basecourse materials used in road construction. Imaging, re... Read More

Effect of Surface Roughness and Vegetation on the Proximal Soil Moisture Sensor

ISEMA conference 2016, Florence, Italy

Tan, A. E. C, Richards, S., Platt, I., Woodhead, I. May, 2016

AbstractA method of measuring soil moisture with proximal electromagnetic sensors that were mounted on irrigators had been developed. Techniques from the impulse (ultra-wideband) radar were applied, which enabled the measurem... Read More

A Dieletric Model for Composite Aterials

ISEMA 2016 conference (11th International conference on electromagnetic wave interaction with water and moist substances)

Woodhead, I. M., Platt, I. G., and Tan, A. E. C. May, 2016

AbstractIn this paper we use fundamental and measurable parameters to build components of a combined dielectric model for composite materials. Beginning with a near ideal material such as sand with pseudo-spherical particles,... Read More

Imaging and Parameterizing Moisture in Road Sub Course Using Time Domain Reflectometry

IEEE Sensors Journal, Vol. 16(12), 4760 - 4766

Platt, I., Woodhead, I., Harrington P., Tan, A. E. C. Apr, 2016

AbstractThis paper presents the experimental results of using a non-invasive time domain reflectometry (TDR) sensor to image and parameterize the moisture content of basecourse materials used in road construction. Imaging, re... Read More

Small Scatter Elements for Crack Detection - A Preliminary Investigation Using Simulation

ICST -  International Conference on Sensor Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

Platt, I., Woodhead, I., Hagedorn, M. Dec, 2015

AbstractThis paper looks at the feasibility of using short elements radar scatters elements within concrete as a marker to cracking. It is shown that the dynamic range of power returns due to broken scatterers (indicating cra... Read More

Imaging Using The Transverse Field of a Parallel Transmission Line

IEEE Conference on Antennas Measurements and Applications, Chang Mai, Thailand

Woodhead, I., Platt, I, Tan, A. E. C. Nov, 2015

AbstractThe braided Wairau River is the main source of recharge to the highly productive Wairau Aquifer. Concurrent flow gauging measurements at low flow indicate that a 7 cumec loss occurs as the river traverses the Wairau a... Read More

Imaging Using the Transverse Field of a Parallel Transmission Line

IEEE Conference on Antennas Measurements and Applications, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Woodhead, I., Platt, I., Tan, A. Nov, 2015

AbstractThe transverse field resulting from a pulse propagating along a parallel transmission line can be used to image changes in the dielectric permittivity of material samples adjacent to it. This Time Domain Reflectometry... Read More

Nitrogen fertiliser management with zone characterisation in grazed pasture systems

28th Annual Fertiliser & Lime Research Centre workshop, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Woodhead, I. M., Platt, I., Hagedorn, M. Feb, 2015

AbstractThis paper looks at the feasibility of using short elements radar scatters elements within concrete as a marker to cracking. It is shown that the dynamic range of power returns due to broken scatterers (indicating cra... Read More